Monday, November 01, 2010

10. Compete in a multi-sport event

Once again the Mighty Midgets stepped up to the challenge of the all womens adventure race, the Spring Challenge. This year's event started and finished in Tapawera and included rafting, mountain biking, orienteering and hiking. As usual, our preparation for the event had involved more tapering than training but we were feeling relatively confident as we stood at the start line. Our aim was to finish the course within 8 hours and cross the finish line exhausted but still smiling and having fun.

The starting gun saw 300 women head off on mountain bikes with amazing little carnage. We had cunningly elbowed our way to the front of the starting block and set off at a cracking pace, mostly being dragged along by the amazingly fit 12 hour teams. At one point, we were crusing along at an impressive 40 km/hr on mountain bikes on a gravel road! 13 km later and it was off the bikes and onto the raft (after being shoved into our wetsuits by our awesome support crew).

The mighty Motueka river was no match for the Mighty Midgets and was thankfully full of water, unlike the Buller last year when we spent a LOT of time dragging the raft over rocks. Our raft guide did spend quite a lot of time chatting to raft guides on boats we were trying hard to pass (mildly annoying) but we dug deep and got to the raft pullout in super-quick time. Another quick transition: wetsuits off, bike clothes on, food and water in. Then back on the bikes.
This leg started with steep grind up a large hill and was hard work. Little navigation required, although a little confusion at the top of the hill before a nice rocky descent, followed by one of the muddiest rides I have ever done. WE're talking thick, soupy mud over your wheel hubs, with ruts and sticks and blackberry to catch you when you're busy concentrating on the mud. There was a lot of pushing bikes but it was a lot of fun (and a little frustrating). We eventually emerged from the mud and sped downhill towards the orienteering course.


Now, the Mighty Midgets specialty is orienteering. We do loads of rogaines and night navigation orienteering and we're pretty good with a map and compass. So we were pretty happy with the orienteering leg - a nice easy course where we hit every checkpoint straight away and never even looked like getting lost. Then it was back on the bike for another muddy sidle around the hill to Transition 3.

We hit Transition 3 in 10th place! Amazing! We hadn't really trained and didn't think that we would be anywhere near that close to the front of the field. But we're pretty competitive and this news meant that our super-competitiveness kicked in. We set off on the hike in good spirits and keen to pass as many teams as possible. Which meant that we changed our plan and decided to take an alternative route to the next checkpoint at Trig U. So we set off up a narrow forestry road leading up a ridge through the pines. A couple of km up, the road petered out and after consulting the map and a bit of dithering, we decided to keep heading up the hill, following a track that had obviously been pioneered by the Spring Challenge competitors in front of us. After much struggling up the steep hill, through gorse and blackberry, we eventually made it to the top of the hill and popped out at a Trig. Trig Z. Not the trig we were supposed to be at. In fact, a trig on a completely different ridge a long way from the trig we were supposed to be at. There was a little swearing and "how the $#% @ did we get here?". The lesson from Spring Challenge 2010: Look at your map and don't necessarily follow the path most travelled!

Then we sat down, had a muesli bar and figured out how to actually get to where we were supposed to be. Fortunately there was a relatively easy route that avoided the gorse and scrub and we were quickly heading in the right direction. An hour of traversing paddocks saw us at Trig U and back on the homeward straight. Then it was a quick run downhill through the forest and out into the township of Tapawera.

The last few blocks were a bit of a struggle and it was a tired but smiling team of Mighty Midgets that crossed the finish line in 18th place. Another successful Spring Challenge completed in 8 hours and 20 mins.

Next year we attempt the 12 hour event!

1 comment:

Maaike Jongerius said...

Love your blog and this story!! I will link to it...not that I use my blog much anymore, but still: lovely story and pictures!!

So. Why are you going to Antartica and Australia again? I want to continue playing!!